


Do you still believe in one another?

by IaMcHrIsSi



Series: Consequences of the night [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Jason trying to be a big brother, TW: Discussions of child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 03:42:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16255946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IaMcHrIsSi/pseuds/IaMcHrIsSi
Summary: Following Dick's shooting, Jason realizes that Damian is alone with a person who's proven willing to beat one of his sons nearly to death before. He decides to do something about it.Or: I work out my frustrations with canon.





	Do you still believe in one another?

**Author's Note:**

> So... yeah. Canon went and did what I knew they were going to do from the start, meaning that
> 
> *spoiler*
> 
> Bruce and Jason talked for like a few panels and then hugged, but nobody actually acknowledged that Bruce beat Jason so badly that he had to stay in bed for a month afterwards and didn't even stop on his own but only stopped when he was literally shot and drugged. No apology from Bruce, just a statement that Jason is not allowed to ever come back to Gotham again, because that's such a healthy thing to tell your son, that he's never allowed home again. And, oh yeah, Jason genuily believes that Bruce hates him, which he has every reason to do, and Bruce just kind of says he doesn't hate him, but he also doesn't really take back the whole "I regret ever believing in you" from RHATO 25, so... essentially, nobody acknowledges just how terrible RHATO 25 was from a perspective of "this guy literally tried to kill his son, he should at the very least crawl on his knees for forgiveness for the next few weeks". Which I expected, because they were never going to acknowledge Bruce Wayne as an abusive father, but it's still frustrating as hell.
> 
> *end spoiler*
> 
> So, after we learned in Teen Titans that Jason and Damian are working together, I immediately thought that this makes sense if Jason wants to keep an eye on Damian in case Bruce is abusing him too. Because Jason grew up in an abusive household before being adopted by Bruce, he knows that that's not improbable. And with Dick now amnesiac, it makes sense that Jason would at least try to help out Damian. It's never going to happen in canon, because again, that would require them to acknowledge that Bruce is abusive and therefore not necessarily safe for Damian to be around, but you know. That's what fanfiction is for.
> 
> Essentially, this is my Fuck You! to current canon. I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> Title is from Hey Brother from Avicii

At first, he doesn't even think about Damian. Which he probably should have, in hindsight. Parents who abuse one child are quite likely to abuse their other children as well, Jason knows that. And if Bruce is willing to beat him near to death like that...

But in Jason's defense, he is kind of busy with healing from said beating. And he assumes that Dick has an eye on the situation. The guy might have never been that good at being a big brother to Jason when he needed it, but there's no doubt that he loves the demon brat.

If Bruce so much as raises his hand at the kid, Dick will have him flat on his ass and begging for mercy within a second, Jason is sure of it. And Damian would talk to Dick, too. So really, Damian is Dick's problem, not Jason's.

(Jason tries not to feel bitter, and he almost manages. Almost. Some part of him still wishes that Dick would step in to protect him, too.)

* * *

Then Dick gets shot in the head. Just like that.

Jason doesn't learn about it until two days later, when Tim remembers that he isn't actually in Gotham anymore and therefore doesn't get the news per gossip anymore, and calls him at 6 am.

Good kid, Tim.

But Jason still doesn't think about Damian, even though really, he should have.

Or, he does think about Damian, but only in the “Can the kid handle Dick being almost dead?” and not in the “Damian is alone with Bruce who might explode at him at any moment and/or just generally get abusive” way.

In his defense, Dick did just get shot in the head. Even in their business, that's not normal.

* * *

Dick wakes up, and suddenly Barbara Gordon shows up at Jason's place because Dick is not Dick anymore and for some reason, she wants to cry about that at his place.

Not that Jason minds, to be honest. As long as he makes tea and cookies for Barbara and wonders why in the world she came to _him_ with this, he doesn't have to worry about his own complicated feelings about Dick and what happened to him.

But that night, when he's trying to fall asleep on the couch because he gave Babs the bed, he wonders why Babs didn't go to Bruce to cry about this. They've always been rather close, those two, and they have a history with Dick that Jason just doesn't share, so the thought is automatic. Natural.

And then, like ice in his veins, he remembers why he's not in Gotham anymore. Why he doesn't talk to Bruce. Why he has three new scars.

He's trembling, like always when he remembers that night, but he tries to breathe. A panic attack is not helpful, especially not with a grieving Babs in the next room.

If Babs is grieving like that and can't go to Bruce, how does Damian feel?

Damian. _Damian_.

Jason jumps to his feet, Babs forgotten. Damian. Damnit. Damian, who is alone with Bruce. Who Bruce has full and sole custody of. Who grew up in an environment so abusive and violent, he probably wouldn't even question a few more beatings. Who has bruises so often, a few new ones wouldn't even stick out.

Suddenly, there's bile in Jason's throat, and he has to fight to keep it down. He closes his eyes, tries to center himself. Deep breath.

Barbara hadn't mentioned Damian at all, but they're not that close. Damian is not her little brother. And she is kind of distracted.

But that doesn't mean that Damian is fine.

* * *

The next morning, he tries to ask about Damian subtly, and Barbara says he's okay. He doesn't think she's deliberately hiding anything, but he's also not sure if she'd really know even if something was wrong.

He waves her goodbye two hours later, and gets to work finding Damian.

It's not actually that difficult, because while Damian himself rarely carries things that can be traced, his best friend Jon Kent has a normal cell phone. Which Jason can hack just like that, which means that nobody gave the Kent's the “you know multiple world class hackers, please let us at least encrypt your electronics a bit” talk yet. Which is weird, but like, bigger problems.

He's able to get Jon's location, and sets out to find the kids. He's not even sure what he wants to say, but he figures that if Damian looks okay, he might not have to say anything at all.

That sounds like a good plan, actually. Just making sure the kid is okay. Bruce wouldn't hurt the kid. Probably. Like, he's always loved Damian, his son by blood. His _real_ son. He even went through all the trouble to personally revive him when he died. He wouldn't hurt him.

Right?

* * *

Damian looks okay. He always looks okay, of course. The kid was raised by assassins. No way he'd let anyone see a potential weakness if there is any way to avoid it.

Which means that Jason's little observatory mission doesn't actually give him any of the information he came for. Great.

He's just trying to figure out how to approach the brat about something as sensitive as “Is your father abusing you?” when he feels something behind him. He whirls around, guns raised and ready to fight, but it's just the brat, staring at him. Jason suppresses a curse.

“What are you doing here, T... Hood?” Is the fact that Damian almost called him by his real name an indication for great stress, or problems at home, or is it just because it's late and the kid is tired? No way to tell in the weird grey light the sky takes just before dawn.

Then he realizes that Damian is waiting for an answer. He doesn't actually have one. He's pretty sure that “I wanted to check up on you” won't go over well. The kid'll consider it a sign of disrespect.

“You were following Deadshot. My team is perfectly able to handle him!” Damian says, and Jason... nods. Because that's as good an excuse as anything, really, and following up on Deadshot is something he would do, so... yeah. Why not.

“Good job capturing him. You send him to Belle Reve?” He says, because the Teen Titans did do a good job, and while most of it was Kori being awesome, Damian has been getting better at team work too. That has to be honored. At least that's what Dick would do.

“He'll break out within the week, of course. There really should be a more permanent solution.” Kill them, Jason wants to say, but he's trying to be a responsible big brother here for once, so he doesn't. Even if that is the most logical solution.

Damian's still looking at him though, expecting some... validation, or something? Dick's always done that mature stuff. But Dick's not here right now.

“Maybe we should like... build our own prison. One where they can't break out of.” There. Not as responsible as Dick would be, but at least he's not advocating murder. Damian will tell him he's stupid and that he's not interested in working with Jason or something like that, and then Jason can go back to his own life.

Damian is quiet for a full minute, long enough for Jason to get slightly worried. The kid usually isn't one to let him have the last word.

“Perhaps you're not quite as much an imbecile as I thought, Hood.” He says, finally, and... what? “Your plan has merit. Have you found a fitting location for such a prison yet?” Jason blinks. He hasn't actually ever thought about building a prison before. It was just a spur of the moment idea.

“Not... yet. It's a work in progress.” He says, and tries not to let it show how much much he feels out of his depth.

“It should be perfectly possible to organize a location. I will search on my own, and get back to you with the results.” Damian says, and then he just leaves.

Jason stares at the spot Damian stood at just a second ago. At least he has an excuse to keep an eye on Damian now?

* * *

By the time Damian figures out the use of an extra dimension as prison, Jason is willing to admit the whole “build your own prison” idea is not as bad as it sounds.

Sure, it'll be a logistical nightmare. And they're going to break like half a million laws (well, more like 63. Jason checked.). And they don't know anything about organizing a prison.

But it's not like vigilantes care about laws, really. Breaking and entering and beating up suspects without any judge telling them so is not exactly legal, after all. And what they don't know they can learn.

And it would at least be an attempt to keep those bastards away from innocent people. Like, putting them in Arkham or Belle Reve doesn't do anything but give you a couple days worth of peace before they're out again. There would be none of that in their own prison. When they put people there, they won't get out.

No more dead kids just because Batman is too precious to deal with the problem.

And it's a way to get Damian to actually check in with him regularly. In the four weeks since they've started thinking about their own prison, Damian has come by Jason's safe house a shocking six times. He's even stayed more than two minutes twice, long enough for Jason to warm up some food and put it in front of the kid.

He's not sure whether Damian notices that Jason is trying to take care of him, but it doesn't really matter. What matters is that Damian trusts Jason enough to accept food from him without a second thought.

Maybe he just misses Dick, but it kind of makes Jason feel warm.

* * *

One day he comes back from a particularly nasty stint breaking up a drug ring, and Damian is sleeping on his couch.

He stands there in full Red Hood getup for over a minute, bleeding on the carpet, just staring at the kid. Then he tiptoes into the bathroom to take care of his wounds, and checks his fridge. He's only got water and a solitary grape, so he sighs and makes a quick run to the next 24 hour supermarket.

Can't have the kid not having breakfast, and all that.

* * *

He sometimes wonders whether he'll just make things worse.

Because Bruce won't agree with their whole prison idea. Jason's got no illusions about that. Nothing he's ever done has ever been good enough for Bruce, and right now the man is actively looking for reasons to hate him, so that'll be right up his alley.

The fact that he's doing this because it's better than killing the bad guys won't matter to Bruce either, because Bruce has proven quite clearly that he doesn't actually care why Jason does what he does. The only thing Bruce cares about is his stupid narrow moral code that doesn't actually work for anyone else.

The thing is, Jason can deal with Bruce hating him. He's done so for a while now, and he's out of the man's direct reach. Bruce would have to actually leave Gotham to get to him, and Jason is not someone who just takes what Bruce throws at him lying down. He'd punch the asshole right back.

Damian, though. Damian lives with Bruce. And Damian would probably just accept it as punishment. There's no way Damian punches Bruce in anything but a sparring situation.

But there's not much else he can do. He can't get Damian away from Bruce, because there isn't anyone who would back him up if he tried. And it's not like he could get custody anyway, what with being legally dead and all that.

And Damian would never get help for himself. The only thing he can do is monitor the situation, show the kid that he can always come to him no matter what is going on, and hope for the best.

* * *

“Do you think he'll ever be back to normal?” Damian asks one afternoon. They've been sitting in Jason's safe house for a few hours, reading up on prison management and how much food an inmate needs a day. It's a lot more than Jason had thought.

A lot more than he remembered getting, but he doesn't want to think about that right now.

“Yeah.” He says, mostly because he is the big brother here, and there's no way in hell he'll tell Damian to give up hope.

“Yeah, he's way too stubborn not to, don't you think?” He looks at the kid. Damian is staring at the book he's supposedly reading, clearly not seeing it. Jason puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Maybe it's easier for him like this. Not caring. About any of us. Just... living his own life.” He sounds so insecure, Jason kind of wants to punch Dick on general principle, but even he can admit that wouldn't be fair. Even though the asshole that Dick apparently is right now has probably done something to deserve it.

“Hey kid, look at me.” He says instead, waiting until Damian's eyes find his. “Dick cares. That's who he is. He can't just not care, because if he doesn't care, then he's not Dick. And not caring is not easier. You know that. I know that. It just... means that your life is empty. That's why Dick's always been happiest of all of us, because he has so many people to care about, who care about him right back. And that's also why he'll be back to himself sooner or later, because that's just who he is.”

There's a tear in Damian's eye at the end of Jason's little speech, but Jason's own eyes are kind of wet, so it's okay.

And then the kid throws himself at Jason. For half a second, he wonders what he did to deserve an attack, before he realizes that Damian is _hugging_ him. He hugs him back.

* * *

They figure out the prison thing. They figure out how to feed everyone in that prison, how to keep the dimension stable. They figure out how to step people from fleeing without wardens. It's absolutely ridiculous, but it also feels like something that might work.

Which means they're totally doomed, probably.

But the first time they put a pedophile in his brand new cell, secure in the knowledge that he will not get out of this prison, Jason feels like this might be the one thing he does that might mean something in the long run.

* * *

Damian comes more frequently. Soon Jason has a guest for at least one meal every other day. It's not the food that draws the kid in, that's for sure. Jason is a pretty decent cook, but he's got nothing on Alfred.

The kid also doesn't sport any alarming bruises. Like, sure, he has bruises, but they all look like they're Robin related. He doesn't have any way of knowing if Bruce is just, like, verbally abusive, but even if he was, it's not like he could do anything about it.

Maybe the kid just misses Dick, though. It can't be easy to stay at the manor knowing that Dick will not show up to visit. But that's another thing he can't do anything about, so he tries to focus on the things he can do. Research and food and a safe place to stay.

Damian accepts all of it quietly.

* * *

Babs calls one day. She says that Dick is doing better, becoming more like Dick again.

Jason would like to believe it, but Dick hasn't checked up on Damian yet. He knows because he's asked, and at this point, he trusts Damian to tell the truth in such things.

If Dick was genuily getting back to being himself, he'd check up on the brat in a heart beat. As long as that hasn't happened yet, Jason has to assume that Babs is just seeing what she wants to see.

* * *

He empties his weapons room one afternoon, and buys a bed and a shelf and some other essentials instead. He never says that it's Damian's room now, but he doesn't have to.

He does say: “You know you can literally always come and stay, right?”, though.

“Yes, I am aware of that.” Damian answers, and Jason figures that means they'll be okay.


End file.
